Blackstone In Talks To Invest In "Raped" Liverpool Football Club

The asset management firm Blackstone is being courted by
Liverpool Football Club owner Tom Hicks in a bid to preserve his
place at the helm of the team's ownership structure,
according to The Telegraph.

The club, laden with debts from a leveraged buyout by Hicks and
co-owner George Gillet, is seeking to solve its current debt
crisis with RBS. The club currently has
282 million pounds ($440.5 million) in debt, and is seeking
to refinance a large part of it so it can keep up with interest
payments.

The news comes as hedge funder Paul Marshall of Marshall Wace is
set to speak on the matter, labeling the money that flowed into
the sport of soccer in the England prior to the financial crisis
as "irrational
capital."

Marshall is also set to take aim at Liverpool's owners in
specifics, calling their investment with little knowledge of the
club or the community, "the
rape of a community."